New Real Estate Investor in Sacramento, CA

[Justin Swindle]

Hello,

My name is Justin Swindle and I am currently a healthcare professional in Sacramento, CA. As of August of 2016, I officially separated from active duty after 10 years of service in the United States Air Force. I have been consuming a bunch of content on real estate investing in the past year and made the decision to get involved now that I can actually choose how I would like to spend my post-military career.

I am initially going to be working on wholesaling properties and see what opportunities will open up from there. I have recently began to establish my business and will be working on marketing some more over the next couple weeks. I look forward to networking and meeting like-minded professionals particularly in Sacramento and Solano counties. 

Thanks for reading my intro and I would appreciate any tips anyone may want to pass on. 

-Justin

[Wes Blackwell]

Hi @Justin Swindle! Welcome to Bigger Pockets!

Right now the fix-n-flip market in Sacramento is STARVING for deals, so if you can find a deal you'll have no problem locating an end-buyer. You can read more about the state of fixer uppers in the area in my post here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/621/topics/398662-heres-what-fixer-uppers-on-the-mls-are-selling-for

Here's the top 3 strategies I would recommend for a wholesaler in today's market:

Preforeclosures: There are roughly 200 preforeclosures per month in Sacramento County. This gives you more leads than you can likely handle, especially if you go back and pull all the people who defaulted last month and the month before that. Go straight to the owner's house and knock on the door. Foreclosure usually happens because of death, illness, job loss or divorce and cripples the homeowner's ability to make mortgage payments. They might be in a tight bind and be willing to sell the property below market value, and you can make your money in between.

Vacant/Non-Owner Occupied: If a home is sitting vacant the owner may be willing to sell it quickly just to get rid of it. They could have moved away, inherited, or just not care about it anymore or aren't willing to rent it. You can door knock with these too (but you'll have to do it at the tax mailing address) or you could simply send a letter. At that point it's merely a numbers game. Talk to enough homeowners and you'll soon find someone willing to sell at a wholesale price, especially if the owner lives out of state.

Driving for Dollars: The last method is to simply drive around and look for homes in disrepair... things like uncut grass, broken down cars in the driveway, or properties that could really use a fresh coat of paint. These indicate that the owner doesn't have the money to fix these problems, and that might mean they are in a situation where selling their home might solve a lot of money problems for them. You can either send them a letter, or go up and knock.

Now, you may or may not have been aware of all these strategies, but what's really important is that the point I'm emphasizing is HUSTLE. Not that you aren't doing that already, I don't know, but what I do know is that doing the above activities 40 hours a week will practically guarantee you success.

While other wholesalers are relaxing at home and waiting for a deal to fall into their lap, you'll be out making things happen. I'm a firm believer that if you want success, you have to go out and get it, and the only real way I see having success with wholesaling nowadays is to get out their and meet property seller's face-to-face.

And as a side note, thank you for your service! Once you're ready to take advantage of the VA financing offered to you, I'd recommend reaching out to Chris Mason here on Bigger Pockets. He's a service member himself and wrote a killer post about VA financing you can read more about here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/834/topics/397510-va-loan-for-2-4-units-what-you-need-to-know-active-or-easd